


Going Up In Flames

by syriala



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Fire, Fluff, Getting Together, Humor, M/M, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Pining, Semi-Sentient Magic, The Steter Network Monthly Prompts, flames
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-10
Updated: 2018-05-10
Packaged: 2019-05-05 01:02:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14605782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/syriala/pseuds/syriala
Summary: Stiles had never cared too much that his magic mostly presented as fire. But when the flames started acting up around Peter, almost giving his (most certainly still) secret crush away and scaring Peter in the process, he needed to do something about it. Sadly, his magic wasn't cooperating at all.





	Going Up In Flames

**Author's Note:**

> The Steter Network prompt for May was Fire, and I refused to make it angsty.

Stiles was proud to say that he had his magic under control.

He had worked hard on that, had spent time away from the pack to properly learn how to handle the magic coursing through his veins and manifesting mainly as flames all around him, and it had taken him a while, but finally he could say that he had absolute control over it.

Which was why he was absolutely not impressed when he entered the loft and a flame immediately sprung up on his arm.

He swatted at it, trying to put it out, to make his magic behave itself, but the flame wouldn’t have it.

It danced across his arm, moving down to his hand and actually managing to tug him into a certain direction.

“Stiles, what’s wrong?” Scott asked uncertain from the couch and Stiles cursed.

“No fucking idea,” he then said and clamped down on his magic hard, forcing it into submission.

The painful shock traveling up his arm let him know exactly how unhappy his magic was with him right then and Stiles cursed some more.

He had known that his magic had a mind of its own, he had to learn that the hard way during his training, but this was just ridiculous.

Stiles shook out his hand, ridding it of the last errant currents and then flexed his hands a few times.

“Alright, all back under control,” he announced then and finally looked up at the pack.

Everyone was staring at him, and Peter and Derek seemed a bit white around the nose.

“You said you had it under control,” Derek gruffly said and Stiles shrugged.

“I have, something like this never happened before.”

“That’s not control,” Peter said from his perch on the stairs and then got up. “If you excuse me now, I have better things to do than be near a fire hazard.”

He quickly walked through the loft, avoiding Stiles as best as he could. Stiles couldn’t say he was too sad about that because he was pretty sure he didn’t want Peter to see the hurt look on his face. But Peter paid him no mind and left without a glance back. No one called him back either.

Stiles’ magic reared its head again but Stiles got it under control before a flame could form. Stiles shot a speculative glance at the door Peter had just vanished through but when Derek called for his attention, he forgot all about the incident.

Until it happened again, a few days later. Stiles didn’t have any problems with his magic after the incident at the loft and he was inclined to chalk it up to a new situation, but when he entered the loft again, for the fourth time this week, he was suddenly engulfed in flames again.

“What the fuck,” he said and wrestled hard with his magic for control.

“Stiles, you’re kind of burning,” Scott helpfully said and Stiles shot him a murderous look.

“Thanks for telling me, I wouldn’t have noticed otherwise,” he hissed and pushed his magic down hard.

It finally relented, the flames around him dying out, but Stiles could almost hear it grumble with how unhappy it was.

“I don’t know what’s happening,” Stiles distractedly said and brushed his hands down his chest.

“Then you better figure it out,” Peter snapped from the kitchen, the farthest away from Stiles he could get without leaving the room.

It hurt to see him this scared of Stiles, keeping his distance at all times, especially since they had started something of a friendship before Stiles had erupted into flames the first time.

He could understand that Peter wasn’t comfortable around flames and fire, but Stiles’ magic wasn’t really fire and besides, it would never hurt Peter.

Stiles just missed their banter and regular research dates and the easy way with which Peter would sometimes reach out for him, but he pushed it all down. Stiles had been pining before this all happened but now he couldn’t even entertain the thought of something more between them, not with his magic acting up at random times and scaring Peter.

He didn’t want to cause a panic attack, or worse.

“I will, I promise,” Stiles belatedly said and sat down on the couch.

Derek eyed him suspiciously and Stiles rolled his eyes at him.

“I won’t burn down the couch, I promise,” he said and Derek narrowed his eyes at him.

“You just spontaneously combusted,” Peter said. “Excuse us for being a bit wary around you.”

“I said I’ll figure out what’s happening,” Stiles said again, and he could feel his magic push at him again, almost like it was trying to get somewhere.

Stiles focused inwards and gave his magic just a little bit more slack and when it immediately sprung to life on his skin, pulling him towards Peter, Stiles got up in a rush and scrambled back.

“I think I’ll leave after all,” he hastily said and both Peter and Derek encouraged that decision, while the rest of the pack put up a token protest but Stiles was already rushing out of the loft.

This could not be happening.

His magic could absolutely not be reacting to his stupid crush on Peter, there was no way in hell that was a thing.

It couldn’t be a thing, right?

Stiles had aimed for going home and working some more on his control but instead he found himself in front of Deaton’s clinic. He needed answers.

“So, doc,” he said as he barged in. “Let’s say my magic is acting just a little bit out of control around a certain someone. That is totally my imagination and not something that is really happening, right?”

Deaton looked at him, no emotion betraying his thoughts and then he shrugged.

“Your magic is mostly influenced by your belief and feelings. If you’re in love with someone, I would guess the magic in you would react to that.”

Stiles groaned. That was the absolute last thing he wanted to here.

“This cannot be happening,” he whispered and Deaton almost looked sympathetic.

“I would say it is,” he easily said and Stiles wanted to strangle him.

“Any tips on how to handle this?” he asked, but knowing Deaton the advise but be less than helpful.

“Resolve your emotional issues,” he said and yep, there it was.

Not helpful at all.

If Stiles could resolve his crush on Peter that easily, he would have done it as soon as it popped up all those months ago.

“Yeah, right, easy as pie, thanks for nothing,” Stiles grumbled and walked right back out of the clinic.

So this had been a waste of time.

Maybe having a talk with his magic would go better, and Stiles refused to notice how insane that sounded.

Still, it was something he could try and so he went back home, hoping to hell that his dad wasn’t home because he was certain he would go up in flames more than once during this and his dad always gave him these worried looks.

When Stiles got home, his dad’s cruiser luckily wasn’t in the drive way and Stiles sprinted up to his bedroom.

“Alright, let’s do this,” he said to himself and then concentrated on his magic again.

It was calm, deceptively so, and Stiles poked at it.

“What the hell was that?” he said, feeling stupid talking out loud to an empty room but his magic immediately responded.

If it kept its stubborn head Stiles would need to come up with a name for it.

His magic pushed at him again, urging him into a specific direction and Stiles would bet both his hands on Peter being somewhere down there.

Stiles was so not going to let this happen.

“Look, you idiot,” Stiles said and got shocked for his troubles again. “Peter is afraid of fire, how do you think you make him feel, you absolute pain in my ass?”

Stiles could almost swear his magic was suddenly sorry, but there was also the absolute surety that it would never ever hurt Peter, couldn’t, not even if it wanted to.

And that meant something because Stiles had burned down a house during his training, not to mention that he was now a pro at making burn-soothing creams, since his teacher had been burned one too many times for them both to be comfortable.

“So you’re telling me, Peter has nothing to be afraid of,” Stiles inquired and he imagined his magic nodding with how eager it suddenly was.

“Fine,” Stiles grumbled and got his phone out. “This has to stop,” he said as he dialed Peter’s number.

“What?” Peter immediately said and Stiles frowned.

There had been times when Peter had been nicer. But then again that had been before Stiles regularly combusted into flames.

“We need to meet,” Stiles said, not bothering with a greeting since Peter hadn’t either.

“If you’re still going up in flames every five minutes we sure as hell don’t,” Peter said and hung up on Stiles without hesitation.

Stiles stared at his phone and shook it, as if that would get Peter back on the line.

“There you see what you’ve done,” he mumbled to his magic and then smacked himself with his phone repeatedly.

This was insane.

He needed to show Peter that he had nothing to fear from Stiles’ magic without telling him that he was head over heels in love with him and all Stiles wanted to do was get into bed and hide for the next week.

But his magic apparently had other plans because flames danced over his skin suddenly, and Stiles was sure that if he was to even touch the bed it would go up in flames as well.

“You are the worst,” Stiles told his magic and then went back out to Roscoe.

He didn’t even have to hack Peter’s phone to get his location, because his magic turned out to be a damn good navigator and soon enough Stiles was walking through the preserve, no clue where he was, but damn sure about his destination.

His magic changed direction several times and at one point Stiles called out “Peter, if you don’t stop running I won’t stop following you, goddamn, just stand still for like ten minutes!”

Apparently he was already close enough to be heard because his magic pushed at him more urgently and not even two minutes later Stiles was finally face to face with Peter.

“What do you want?” Peter snapped at him and eyed him suspiciously, no doubt looking out for any flames on Stiles.

“Look,” Stiles started and then immediately shut up again because one of the flames that just sprung up on his arm tried its best to float over to Peter, who got pale and stumbled back.

“God fucking dammit,” Stiles cursed and swatted at the flame, putting it out in the process and taking a few steps back himself.

“Here’s the thing,” Stiles started again, iron clad grip on his magic, and just begging it not do to anything stupid until he was done.

“My magic is drawn to you,” he explained and hoped that Peter wouldn’t want any explanations as to why, because Stiles was so not ready to admit to that reason.

“What?”

“It’s urging me to go to you, and don’t even ask me why,” Stiles ambiguously said, and hoped that it was just vague enough to not alert Peter to the fact that he was lying and knew damn well why.

“I hope you’re aware that fire and I do not have a very good history,” Peter snapped out and Stiles shrugged.

“I know that, but my magic somehow doesn’t.”

“You want to tell me your magic is sentient?” Peter asked and raised an eyebrow.

Stiles could see the curiosity in his gaze and maybe that was his in. Peter liked to know things, and he loved learning about new things.

“Semi-sentient,” Stiles answered and flapped his hand around before he shrugged. “The thing is it wants closer to you, and I can promise you that it won’t hurt you. Like, at all.”

“It’s fire, Stiles,” Peter said. “Fire usually hurts.”

“It’s magic fire, and also my magic fire and I would never allow anything to hurt you,” Stiles said, more honest than he had intended to be, but it seemed to do the trick.

Peter was slowly coming closer, though he seemed still wary.

“If you burn me I’ll kill you,” he threatened and Stiles took a second to think that over.

“Fair enough,” he then relented and stretched his hand out, small flame springing to life on his palm. “But I promise you, nothing will happen.”

Peter still seemed wary of him and his magic, but he was reaching out, the thirst to know greater than even his fear of fire.

Stiles could feel it all over when Peter finally touched the flame, a shudder ran from his head all the way down to his toes, but Stiles was too fixated on Peter’s face to really take notice of that.

Because Peter was suddenly full of awe, hand almost completely covering Stiles’ and covered in flames.

“It’s almost cold,” Peter whispered, like he couldn’t conciliate the sight of fire and what he was feeling.

“I told you it would never hurt you. I would never lie to you like that.”

“What can you do with it?” Peter asked a bit awed and when he retracted his hand the flame stayed with him.

“Oh my god,” Stiles whispered at the satisfied feeling his magic sent through him.

“What’s it doing?” Peter wanted to know and Stiles could feel himself get red.

“I think it likes to stay with you,” he eventually explained and Peter looked back at the flame.

“It can do that? How far can it be away from you until it goes out?”

“To be honest, no clue. This has never happened before,” Stiles admitted and Peter looked back at him.

“Your fire isn’t always like this, is it?”

“No,” Stiles hesitantly said. “I burned down a house once on accident,” he then rushed out and hoped to god Peter wouldn’t judge him too hard.

“You can do that? With this?”

“Yeah. It’s only like this around me usually. It doesn’t hurt me at all when I go up in flames and it won’t hurt you either.”

“What if someone else touches it?”

“No one tried yet,” Stiles said with a shrug, not mentioning his mentor, because technically Stiles had touched him when he had been on fire.

“This is amazing,” Peter eventually said and Stiles could feel himself flush again.

If it went on like this he wouldn’t be able to keep his crush to himself for very long. Peter was already giving him curious glances and Stiles abruptly turned away.

“Well, that was what I wanted to tell you, no need to avoid me anymore,” he said as he walked away and then wondered if it wouldn’t have been easier if Peter was still avoiding him.

Going by the sudden pain in his chest as he imagined that scenario, he guessed not.

“Thank you,” Peter called after him and Stiles raised his hand, showing him that he’d heard him.

He didn’t look back once, and surprisingly enough his magic was not acting up either. Though he could still tell where Peter was, even more accurately than before, and Stiles guessed it was because of the flame he had left with him.

He wondered if a piece of his magic would now be with Peter all the time.

When Peter sent him a picture of the flame on his shoulder a few hours later, Stiles guessed that the answer to that particular question would be yes.

When Stiles arrived to the next pack meeting everyone was staring at Peter for once, and not at Stiles.

“Hey,” Stiles greeted them and only Peter looked at him.

The flame was still on his shoulder, and it seemed to have made its home there because it looked downright cozy. Stiles magic was humming, it was so content.

“What the hell is going on?” Derek asked and finally turned to Stiles.

“My magic likes Peter?” he said questioningly, hoping that this wouldn’t be a major discussion point right now.

“How the hell can you stand to have that flame on you?” Derek wanted to know and turned back to Peter.

“It’s actually quite cool,” Peter explained and Stiles could see where this was going and he was so not ready for that particular discussion.

He was already edging to the door when Derek got up and pointed at the flame.

“I once touched Stiles’ fire and it took me almost a day to heal the burns,” he said, tone accusing, like Stiles had done it on purpose.

“What?” Peter asked and shook his head.

Stiles was already so close to the door.

“It doesn’t burn,” Peter told Derek and walked over, no doubt to take Derek’s hand and push it into the flame.

“No!” Stiles yelled, because while he really didn’t want to talk about this, he wanted to see Derek burned and in pain even less.

Peter had stopped with Derek’s hand halfway to the flame and Derek wrenched his hand free from his uncle.

“I can already feel the heat it gives off.”

“What is going on?” Scott chimed in and now everyone turned to Stiles, who still hadn’t made it to the door.

“Yeah, I would like to know that too,” Peter drawled and fixed Stiles with a look.

“Like I said, my magic likes Peter,” Stiles tried again and defensively crossed his hands in front of his chest.

“So it doesn’t like me,” Derek said and actually sounded hurt, while Peter suddenly got a contemplating look.

This was so not good.

“I think it’s more that it likes me better,” Peter said, as if he was trying out a thought just to see if it fit.

“Uh,” Stiles intelligently said and edged closer to the door. “No?” he tried, and wondered if he would make it if he ran right now.

“Don’t even think about it,” Peter threatened and walked up to him. “You go for that door and I promise I will catch you.”

Stiles had a split second where he thought that maybe that wouldn’t be so bad at all, but before he could launch into action Peter was already in his face.

“It’s not only your magic that likes me best,” he said, eyes narrowed at Stiles, cataloguing each expression and Stiles groaned when he blushed again.

“God damn, this was not what I came here for today,” he complained and Peter suppressed a smile.

“Well, this is what you get. So tell me Stiles, why does your magic like me best? You’ve been surprisingly vague on that topic.”

“No real reason,” Stiles said and he tried to make it nonchalant but going by how Peter’s eyes flickered down to his chest, his heartbeat gave him away.

“See, I don’t think I believe you,” Peter drawled and in the background Derek groaned.

“Oh my god, Peter, just kiss him already, you both want it. Put us all out of our misery.”

“I want to hear him say it first,” Peter replied, smile now firmly in place on his face and Stiles could see the flame on his shoulder dance excitedly.

Stiles hadn’t been ready to voice his feelings but now that the chance of rejection was apparently non-existent the words came easily to him.

“My magic likes you best because I might just be in love with you,” he admitted and Peter’s face positively lit up.

“Isn’t that just the best news,” he whispered right before he leaned in and gently kissed Stiles before he put his hands on his hips to pull him closer and deepen the kiss.

Stiles was pretty sure he heard actual clapping from the pack but it was hard to tell with the flames erupting around them and engulfing them completely.

The kiss might be good, great and world-changing even, but seeing Peter not even bat an eye at the flames going up around him, trusting Stiles and his magic so completely, that was the real reason his heart missed several beats.

At Peter’s questioning glance, Stiles just pulled him in again, peppering his face with kisses, because let’s be real, that was pretty good too.


End file.
